Online stores

10 years ago, buying things online were quite unheard off. We all wanted to have the touch and feel of brick and motar shops. Where we can intereact with the sales person and even try out the product before speding our hard earned money. 5 years ago we were all still quite skeptical about buying stuff online but its starting to catch on. With auction sites booming and gaining momentum, it was the in thing. Now adays it has become quite a norm to be buying things online. With payment facilities avaiable from local banks, and of course credit cards. All of us are able to buy things with a click of a mouse.

When I started playing around with my dSLR camera about two years ago, I went to shashinki.com to make a few purchases. As our local photography stores do not have much choices and every time I want any thing it would have to wait to be ordered. And after that I bought a few more items from there. Last year if I’m not mistaken yamiya.com.my came online. Prices were quite competitive with shashinki.com but I have never bought anything from them. That may change within a few months time from now.

This year, ylcamera.com.my came online. For those who do not know, YL Camera is actually a brick and motar store located in Pudu Plaza in Kuala Lumpur. Its famous for the amount of used products that they have and their competitive pricing. I was quite surprise that an actual store has went and opened up an online store. Other companies have their own website, but never had the facilities to purchase from the website itself. Both shashinki.com and yamiya.com.my do not have a physical outlet therefore it keeps the costs lower and competitive. I wonder why did they decide to have a go at online store? Has it come to a stage where online stores were cutting into the profits or sales in the actual store? I know for a fact that locally here, people would walk into the local shops and compare price with the online retailers. In the end, forcing a few shops to sell at lower price or relatively similar. Well its a good thing, in a way, we have more choices. The bad thing is, my bank account will always be out of money. hehe, what expensive hobby we have.

I have added these 3 stores into my links in the left column. Will update more if there are any more local online stores that shows up from now onwards. If you know of any which I have not listed here, do tell me about it, Thanks!